Studies of group attitudes and psychology depend upon establishing communication with a group as a whole, rather than as separate individuals. Present mass communication techniques are very effective in communicating information to large groups, but are seriously defective in allowing the group to effectively communicate accurate expressions of its own collective feelings or intent. Current opinion research relies for the most part on "yes-no" response or multiple choice techniques. These techniques impose severe limitations on the scope of group impression since each question asked must be carefully structured to elicit the specific response desired while minimizing collateral considerations that might otherwise interfere with the response to be elicited.
For example, political opinion analysts may use existing opinion survey techniques to determine whether a group favors or opposes a particular candidate or issue, but otherwise be unable to discover subtle reasons underlying the group decision. A multiple choice statement of reasons can only cover known categories and runs the risk of misstating or oversimplifying the true attitude held by most group members. If the reasons given do not fit individual interpretations, the tendency would be to select generalized statements to avoid inaccurate commitment to more closely held viewpoints. Uncertain or curious results obtained with existing techniques must be examined in later surveys after the initial results have been tabulated and analyzed, and the resultant delay may well give rise to a significant change of circumstances that obscures the reasons behind the previous survey responses.
The same limitations apply in experimental studies of group psychology. With existing techniques, it is difficult to allow the group free expression as an entity, or to test the instantanteous shifts in group attitude as a sequence of events unfolds.
Previous attempts have been made to obtain free group communication through voting on individual letters or segments of a message, but the methods employed were cumbersome making effective communication with a group of any size a very time consuming and difficult task. In groups of any size delays encountered in tabulating each successive vote had the undersirable effect of interfering with the participants' concentration and patience, thereby tending to produce noticably cryptic, incomplete and sometimes frivolous responses. Therefore, effective use and study of such group communication techniques would seem to depend upon minimizing tedious delay and facilitating the ability to express full and complete ideas without undue effort. Rapid tabulation and presentation of the voting results on successive message components should not only stimulate and maintain the interest of the group members in the communication process, but also greatly faciliate use of immediate follow-up techniques, such as the propounding of additional inquiries to clarify uncertain or ambiguous responses or delve into the reasons behind certain reactions. The group members can thus act to express themselves as a single entity.